LIVERPOOL’S PENNY LANE UNTOUCHED BY HISTORICAL RENOVATION

Street-renaming project raises controversy beneath blue suburban skies

The Beatles recorded "Penny Lane" in 1967. | CP Photo via CBC

CBC News | Link | Liverpool plans to preserve the name of Penny Lane, made famous by the Beatles song, which was in danger of being renamed after British officials proposed changes to streets tied to the slave trade.

The famous lane was named for James Penny, an 18th-century slave ship owner.

That name was jeopardized when a city councillor crafted a plan to rename all streets associated with the trading of slaves in Liverpool, which had been a crucial port of call for slave ships journeying between Africa and the Americas.

However, city council has decided not to change the name of the street that the Beatles immortalized in 1967, when they released a song of the same name that detailed scenes of life on Penny Lane and includes the refrain “Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes/There beneath the blue suburban skies/I sit.”

“I don’t think anyone would seriously consider renaming Penny Lane,” said Coun. Barbara Mace, who came up with the proposal.

Mace said her plan was to replace certain street names with the names of people who have done something positive.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon, the Beatles who wrote the song, grew up around Penny Lane.

Penny Lane was released in February 1967, along with Strawberry Fields Forever. Both singles were released on the Magical Mystery Tour album nine months later.

The band’s fans regularly visit the street. In fact, Penny Lane is so well known that city officials started painting its name on the sides of building because street signs were stolen so often.

CRITICS PAN ATTEMPT TO “CHANGE HISTORY”

Mace has supporters on the 90-member council, which is slated to debate the plan on Wednesday. But the proposal has upset some Liverpudlians.

“It’s like somebody in Germany deciding to bulldoze Auschwitz,” said Eric Lynch, who gives tours about Liverpool’s history.

Lynch said changing the street names would be a “disgraceful attempt to change history.”

“If we don’t know the past, how can we make sure we don’t make the same mistakes?”

Mace said she doesn’t want to erase Liverpool’s history: “It’s not trying to rewrite history.… Liverpool’s history is based on the slave trade. That’s on the history books.”

In 2007, the city will be commemorating its 800th anniversary—and Britain will mark the bicentennial of abolition in the country.

Mace said it would be a good time to remove the names from the map. End.